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Twitter can be a tremendous resource on big news days like yesterday, when the results of Canada's 700MHz Spectrum Auction were announced. I thought it might be useful to dump some of that wisdom here as a resource for those following and discussing the news.

If you're reading this on the front page kindly note that I've added this post to an existing thread; you'd do well to follow the whole story from the beginning.
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I'm just back from my annual pilgrimage to Hong Kong, with a bonus side trip to Kuala Lumpur. As I slowly become reacquainted with life in the Eastern Time Zone I thought I'd share a few mobile insights from what I saw overseas.

Today it's the enigma of Flappy Bird. I caught wind of the game via a story in my RSS reader, but only bits and pieces of the ensuing drama as it unfolded thereafter.
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I'm just back from my annual pilgrimage to Hong Kong, with a bonus side trip to Kuala Lumpur. As I slowly become reacquainted with life in the Eastern Time Zone I thought I'd share a few mobile insights from what I saw overseas.

A mandatory stop in Kuala Lumpur was the local temple of tech, Plaza Low Yat. The closest analog for those of us living in Toronto would be if Pacific Mall had an additional four floors of techy goodness. Even then, Low Yat would still have the edge ó the first three floors are all about mobile.

My girlfriend was thrilled to find a cheap wallet-style case for her Nexus 4; my interest was piqued by a temporary display occupying almost all of the ground floor: The IPro Roadshow.
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I'm just back from my annual pilgrimage to Hong Kong, with a bonus side trip to Kuala Lumpur. As I slowly become reacquainted with life in the Eastern Time Zone I thought I'd share a few mobile insights from what I saw overseas.

First up are the data SIMs that my girlfriend and I used while abroad, two pairs in Hong Kong and one in Malaysia. When I returned from the Far East in 2013 I was still with WIND Mobile; in the months since I've been spoiled by MiFis and LTE, so my perception of Asia's superfast 3G networks ó at least for tourists ó is quite a bit different this time around.
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One trend that puzzles me is the growing scarcity of memory card slots on higher-end phones. First up was the iPhone, which has never come with a memory card followed by the Palm Pre (RIP). Next up, the Galaxy Nexus did away with a memory card slot followed, by the HTC One, LG Optimus G and now even the Moto X lacks this once common feature. Intuitively, youíd think a fancier phone would come with this feature but no.

There are a number of reasons why this has happened.

One big reason is cloud services, why store content on your phone when you can store it in the clouds and access it from all your devices? Another is DRM. When you buy a movie, chances are you can only view it from main memory. That way, you canít easily remove it from your device. Thereís also form factor considerations, all else being equal, a phone with a memory card slot is less sleek.

Lastly, built in flash memory tends to be of much higher quality than the chips they use in a MicroSD. Smartphones need high quality storage because they can shoot high definition video, have high speed burst modes and most importantly, need to launch large programs quickly. Built-in memory is usually much faster and much more durable the removable memory. Faster, more durable memory costs more which adds to a phoneís bottom line.

Unless your higher-end phone is from Samsung, Sony or Huawei, chances are, youíre stuck with whatever your phone came with. The problem with this is that in order to keep prices low, many phones come with the bare minimum when it comes to flash memory.

Apps aside, for me the causes of low storage messages tends to be photos, music and movies.

Hereís where Sandiskís wireless flash drive comes in. Itís a MicroSD card reader that connects to your phone via WiFi. It has a built-in battery and has an app which you use to connect it to your iOS or Android device. It approximate the same size as a large flash drive. Let's check it out:
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I donít know about you but when it comes to monthly bills, the cost of heating and cooling my house is one of the highest. You can cut your phone service, cut your cable, but for most people, you canít eliminate your electrical or heating.

There are a few things you can do to reduce your costs. You can make your house more efficient by changing all your windows and doors, add more insulation, buy a more efficient HVAC/AC, install solar panels but the cheapest and easiest way to reduce your heating and cooling costs is to to install a programmable thermostat.

The idea is that your heating and cooling needs arenít as great at night and during the day when everyone is at work. Instead of running the AC when no one is at home you tell the programmable thermostat to ease off.

Thatís the idea anyways but the thing is, cheap programmable thermostats are a pain to program. To save money, they have tiny screens and a minimal number of buttons. Fancier models have larger screens and more buttons but you still need to go up to your thermostat and program it. If Iím lying in bed and want it to be warmer, itís a pain to have to walk over to my thermostat, set it and then go back to bed.

Hereís where the Honeywell RTH9580WF comes in. The 9580 can connect to your WiFi network so that you can control it using your computerís browser or via an app on your iOS or Android phone. It also has a relatively large colour display. The large colour display makes programming it very easy and letís face it, the big screen looks awesome. Also, since the 9580 is connected to the internet, it knows what time it is and will automatically adjust for daylight savings.
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I went for a short day trip to the US the other day. Since I wasnít staying long I decided to bring along a Roam Mobility SIM. Hereís what happened.

In the past when I travelled to the US, I usually brought along a T-Mobile prepaid SIM Card. Once, I was in New York and had some T-Mobile SIM cards shipped to the hotel I was going to stay at ahead of my arrival. When I arrived at the hotel I checked in, grabbed my SIM cards and then had to spend time activating them. Service was $3 a day and for that you got unlimited talk and text within the US and 200MB of HSPA data (if you go over 200MB you get EDGE speeds which is for most intents and purposes useless).
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Donít you just hate it when you have 10 phones or tablets and you have to figure out how to charge them all at once? And donít you just hate it when each of those devices is able to charge at 2 amps or higher? Okay, chances are, thatís never happened to you but in case you anticipate a windfall of devices, you might want to plan ahead and get Belkinís B2E026 10 port USB charger.

Seriously though, something like this isnít for everyone. Still, off the top of my head I could see how some businesses or educational institutions might have a use for this. Maybe thereís a classroom with 10 or more tablets. Or maybe youíre a business that runs software on tablets. I guess some people might think of getting one if you have a lot of guests over frequently.

Anyways, my guess is that if youíre thinking of buying one youíre probably going to be installing it in a custom enclosure.
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